


to those you love

by SiderumInCaelo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Background Albus/Scorpius, Canon Compliant, Coming Out, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, LGBTQ Themes, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiderumInCaelo/pseuds/SiderumInCaelo
Summary: When Albus comes out to his dad, he doesn't expect so much of the conversation to be about his namesake, Albus Dumbledore.
Relationships: Albus Severus Potter & Harry Potter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 129





	to those you love

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is compliant with the events in _Cursed Child_ , but you don't need to have read/seen it for this to make sense.
> 
> The title is taken from one of my favorite lines in the play: "Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe." (Act four, scene four)
> 
> Many thanks to [Bounding-Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brief_and_Dreamy/pseuds/Bounding-Heart) for the beta!

Disoriented, Albus squinted against the light filling his room – it was never this bright in the Slytherin dormitory. Then he remembered that term had ended yesterday, and he was back home for the summer.

He reached out to pull the curtains open a bit. The low height of the sun told him that it was still quite early, an opinion shared by his bedside clock. Despite that, he didn’t feel like trying to fall back asleep, but instead stumbled out of bed and downstairs.

The kitchen was empty when he entered, but it smelled of fresh coffee. Albus snagged a slice of bread and smeared some butter on it, too lazy to toast it first, then went in search of the culprit.

He found his dad outside on the porch, holding a mug and with the newspaper open across his lap, though he didn’t seem to be reading it. “Morning, Dad,” Albus said as he stepped onto the porch, and tried not to smirk when Harry startled, albeit slightly.

“Albus,” Harry said. “I didn’t expect anyone else to be up for ages.”

“It’s a lot brighter in my bedroom here than the dorms,” Albus explained around a bite of bread.

“We could get you some darker curtains, if it’s waking you up,” Harry said quickly, but Albus cut him off.

“Nah,” he said easily. “I’ll get used to it in a few days, I always do.”

It was peaceful sitting out here, Albus thought while munching on his breakfast, in a way that being with his dad usually wasn’t. He hadn’t planned on telling his dad quite so early into summer – he’d had vague ideas of letting the general homecoming chaos settle first, maybe waiting for his (hopefully praiseworthy) O.W.L. results to come – but here, now, in the quiet, cool morning felt like the right time.

“Scorpius and I are dating,” he said, before he could talk himself out of it.

Harry turned to look at him. “Yeah?” he said, and Albus could scarcely believe the slight smile playing across his face. “Since when?” he asked, his voice holding only mild curiosity.

“About a month ago,” Albus answered automatically. “You – you don’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind. Did you think I would?” he asked, sounding crestfallen.

Albus shrugged noncommittally. “He is a Malfoy… and a boy.”

Harry sighed. “I know I haven’t always been very supportive of your friendship with him, and I’m so sorry about that. But I thought you knew that I support it now.”

“I do,” Albus said, realizing the words were true as he said them. “But I wasn't sure if you’d feel differently about us being more than friends.”

“Does dating Scorpius make you happy?”

“Yeah. It really, really does, Dad,” he said, unable to keep himself from smiling at the thought.

“Then that’s all that matters to me. It’s always been what mattered to me. I just… never knew _how_ to make you happy,” Harry admitted.

“You tried,” Albus said, surprising himself. “And I didn’t exactly make it easy for you.”

“You’re my kid,” Harry said fiercely. “It’s not your job to make parenting easy for me. I still should’ve –”

But Albus cut him off, finding he didn’t need to hear another round of apologies and self-recriminations. “It’s all right,” he said softly, and Harry gave him a tentative smile.

“Who else knows about you and Scorpius?” Harry asked.

“Scorpius and I aren’t keeping it a secret, so probably most of Hogwarts. You’re the first person I’ve properly told, though.”

“Really?” Harry said, looking so stunned it made Albus a bit uncomfortable.

“Don’t go getting a big head, if Mum had been out here instead of you I might’ve told her first,” he said, then immediately panicked, because he was just teasing, really, but what if Harry hadn’t realized and thought he was being snotty and it ruined everything –

But Harry just grinned. “Noted,” he said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

Then his expression turned more serious. “No one at school’s giving you or Scorpius any trouble, are they?” he asked.

Albus shook his head. “A few pureblood wan– er, idiots,” he caught himself, “have given us looks, but most people don’t care.”

“Good,” Harry said. Then, more hesitantly, “You’ll let someone know if that changes, right? It doesn’t have to be me,” he added hurriedly, “Neville – Professor Longbottom – would probably be helpful.”

The old impulse to snap flared up – _I can take care of myself, Dad, leave me alone_ – but it was almost immediately replaced by shame that he ever would’ve responded that way. “Thanks,” he said instead.

Harry slung his arm across Albus’s shoulders, and they sat there in silence for a few moments.

“You know, I think your namesake was gay,” Harry said suddenly.

“Albus Dumbledore?” Albus confirmed, and Harry nodded. “I had no idea,” Albus said, surprised. He’d paged through a few Dumbledore biographies over the years (and Scorpius had read them cover-to-cover), but this had never been mentioned.

“It’s not common knowledge,” Harry explained. “Actually, I’m not sure if anyone else knows. Maybe McGonagall,” he added thoughtfully.

“How do _you_ know?” Albus asked. “You were still a student when he died, right? Seems like a weird thing to know about your Headmaster.”

“Yeah, I was still a student. Almost the same age you are now,” Harry added, sounding a little shocked by the realization. He was quiet for a moment before visibly shaking himself out of his thoughts. “But I didn’t realize until after he died.”

“How?” Albus asked. He hadn’t been interested in hearing his dad’s stories about growing up in years, but whether due to their now-thawing relationship or this unexpected connection with the near-mythological man he was named after, Albus found he wanted to hear more.

“I learned some stuff about his past, from people who’d known him since he was young. And…” Harry trailed off, scratching the back of his neck absentmindedly. “You remember what I’ve told you about the day Voldemort died?”

“There was a big battle at Hogwarts and a lot of people died. You went after Voldemort, and he used the Killing Curse on you again. It didn’t work, but everyone thought you had died for a little while. Then you dueled him again and he was killed by his spell rebounding,” Albus recapped.

Harry nodded. “I survived, because of deep, complicated magic that I’m still not sure I understand. But even so – maybe I just passed out and hallucinated, but I think I died, just for a few minutes, because Dumbledore was there, and we talked. Some of the things he said just make more sense if he was gay.”

If he’d been told this a few years ago, Albus realized with a squirming sensation, he probably would’ve thought Harry was delusional for thinking he’d talked with the dead, and told him that in no uncertain terms. He had no desire to say it now.

“But he wasn’t out?” he asked instead.

“He might’ve told a few people, I wouldn’t know. But not to the world at large.”

“Was – do you think he was ashamed?” Albus asked, his voice coming out wobblier than he’d expected.

“Oh, Albus, no. Not at all.”

“But you don’t really know, do you,” Albus said, more a statement than question.

“Well, no,” Harry admitted. “But I knew _him_ , and he was too kind, not to mention too sensible, to believe there was anything wrong with being gay. He was just a very private person.”

Albus nodded slowly, digesting this. “Why’d you name me after him?” he asked. “I mean, I know he was a great wizard and everything, but you named James and Lily after your parents, not, I dunno, Merlin or Flamel or people like that.”

Harry was silent for a long moment, enough that Albus started to worry that he shouldn’t have asked. “He was… very important to me,” Harry finally said, his voice slightly rough. “He’s a big part of why I survived Voldemort. But more than that, he cared about me. And I cared about him, even though I never knew him as well as I would’ve liked.” Harry sighed. “He was a complicated man, like Snape was. He wasn’t perfect. I gave you your name as a reminder that people don’t need to be perfect to do good things, but I’m sorry if it’s ended up feeling like a burden, or too much to live up to.”

“I like my name,” Albus said truthfully. “It’s better than Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, at least,” he said, grinning a little. 

Harry snorted. “ _Hyperion_ , really?”

“Yeah,” Albus confirmed. “Don’t tell him I said that,” he tacked on a beat later.

“I promise I won’t – as long as you let me show him embarrassing baby pictures of you, soon as he comes over.”

“Dad!” Albus screeched, but he was laughing, and Harry was too.


End file.
